Name: Stir-Fried Dancing Crab (豆豉炒旁蟹)
Yield: Serves 2 as a main dish, 3–4 as art of a multicourse meal.
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1½ walnut-size nuggets fresh ginger, or 2½ walnut-size nuggets fresh “young” ginger; 1 teaspoon Chinese or Japanese sesame oil; 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salted Chinese black beans (not the variety seasoned with five-spice powder); 2 medium whole scallions, cut into 1-inch lengths; ¾ cup light, unsalted chicken stock; 2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold chicken stock; 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or quality, dry sherry; ¼ teaspoon sugar; ½–1 tablespoon thin (regular) soy sauce; 3–4 large cloves garlic, stem end removed, lightly smashed and peeled; 2 pounds large, emphatically alive crabs —Dungeness on the West Coast, blue crabs on the East; fresh coriander sprigs; ¼ pound ground pork butt, or 2–3 tablespoons coarsely minced Smithfield ham, 2 parts ham lean plus 1 part ham fat; ⅛–¼ teaspoon dried red chili flakes (optional); 3 tablespoons corn or peanut oil

Preparation info

Serves
2
as a main dish .

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking

By Barbara Tropp

Published 1982

About

Any knowing Chinese will buy a crab only when it is alive, kicking, and “dancing.” Boxes of the critters arrive twice daily in Chinatowns during crab season, thrashing, spitting bubbles, and clinging tightly to their neighbors’ claws, so that when one picks up one’s chosen beast (by the tail end, that is, farthest from the pincers) it often comes up monkey-style, with a string of hangers-on.